Fw: NASA HSF News Digest V1 #18

Submitted by Arthur N1ORC
In this issue:
STS-109 Mission Status Report #09
STS-109 Mission Status Report #10
STS-109
Report # 09
Monday, March 4, 2002 - 9 p.m. CST
Rested and ready for another day of spacewalking, the crew of the space
shuttle Columbia was awakened at 7:53 p.m. by the children's song
&quot;Floating in the Bathtub,&quot; by Tonya Evetts Weimer. It was
played for Jim Newman who is to step out into space for the second
spacewalk of this mission at about 12:30 a.m. Tuesday.
Newman, making his fifth spacewalk, will work closely with crewmate, Mike
Massimino, who will be conducting his first spacewalk. Newman will wear
a spacesuit marked with horizontal broken red strips for identification
and Massimino will have on a spacesuit with diagonally broken red
stripes.
This spacewalk mirrors much of the work done by spacewalkers John
Grunsfeld and Rick Linnehan who replaced the Hubble Space Telescope's
starboard solar array in today's seven-hour spacewalk. The second team
of spacewalkers will remove the port-side array, stow it in the payload
bay, and install a new-generation array along with its electrical
components, or Diode Box Assembly. An additional task for the pair is to
replace a Reaction Wheel Assembly (RWA) inside the telescope. Space
shuttle robot arm operator Nancy Currie will provide transportation for
the spacewalkers to and from the worksite at the port array of the
telescope and Bay 6, the location of the RWA.
The RWA to be replaced is one of four onboard the telescope. They are
pointing devices that control Hubble's steady view of the cosmos. After
the solar array installation, Massimino will ride the end of the robot
arm to Bay 6, remove the old RWA, and then carry it to the payload bay
where Newman will be waiting with the new component. They will exchange
the units and Massimino will take the new RWA back to Bay 6 for
installation, while Newman stows the old RWA for the flight home. Setup
tasks for future spacewalks of this mission, including removing the
thermal cover on Bay 5 and installing foot restraints, will wrap up the
spacewalk.
Columbia Commander Scott Altman and Pilot Duane Carey will document their
crewmates' work during the spacewalk with television and still-photo
cameras, while also monitoring systems onboard Columbia. Today's
spacewalk, the second of five for this mission, is scheduled to last
almost seven hours.
The crew is to begin its sleep period at 11:52 a.m. CST. The next
STS-109 mission status report will be issued Tuesday morning, or as
events warrant.
- --end--
Date: Tue, 5 Mar 2002 11:36:18 -0600 (CST)
From: info@jsc.nasa.gov
Subject: STS-109 Mission Status Report #10
STS-109
Report # 10
Tuesday, March 5, 2002 – 12 p.m. CST
The crew of Columbia completed the second of five planned spacewalks
this morning with the successful installation of a new port solar array
and a new Reaction Wheel Assembly (RWA) on the Hubble Space Telescope.
Spacewalkers Jim Newman and Mike Massimino spent seven hours 16 minutes
installing the new equipment. Massimino, on his first spacewalk and
Newman, making his fifth spacewalk, began their work at 12:40 a.m. CST.
Newman and Massimino first removed the old port solar array and stowed it
in Columbia’s payload bay for a return to Earth. They then installed a
third-generation solar array and its associated electrical components,
the Diode Box Assembly. When the solar array installation was complete,
the spacewalkers moved on to the removal and replacement of the RWA.
Nancy Currie once again used the shuttle’s robotic arm to maneuver the
spacewalkers to and from the worksite at the port array of the telescope
and the RWA in Bay 6.
Initial validation tests performed by the Space Telescope Operations
Control Center in Greenbelt, Md. indicate that the new solar array and
reaction wheel assembly are working flawlessly. The new RWA is one of
four pointing devices on the telescope that uses its spin to control
Hubble’s position, providing a steady view of the universe for the
telescope’s sensitive cameras.
Toward the end of their spacewalk, Newman and Massimino also installed a
thermal blanket on Bay 6, door stop extensions on Bay 5, and foot
restraints in preparation for tomorrow’s spacewalk by John Grunsfeld and
Rick Linnehan.
The spacewalkers also tested two bolts on the telescope’s aft shroud
doors. Those doors protect the Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object
Spectrometer (NICMOS) and the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph
(STIS.) The two spacewalkers determined that the bottom of the two bolts
required replacement and an aft shroud latch replacement kit was used to
ensure that both bolts keep the door tightly closed.
During the spacewalk, Columbia Commander Scott Altman and Pilot Duane
Carey used television and still-photo cameras to document the work, while
monitoring systems onboard Columbia. Grunsfeld and Linnehan, who will be
outside Columbia tomorrow for the third spacewalk of the mission,
assisted Newman and Massimino from the aft flight deck.
The crew is scheduled to awaken at 7:52 p.m. CST. The next STS-109
mission status report will be issued Tuesday evening after crew wakeup,
or as events warrant.
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